A Complete Waste of Space

A new Quinnipiac University poll got a lot of press for showing Obama’s strength among single women, and his weakness among married women who have to run family budgets. But there was another important finding in it that nearly got overlooked. And that is that Obama’s support among non-college-educated, blue collar white males has dropped to an historic low.

White male workers in jobs like construction are traditionally conservative, but 39 percent of them voted for Obama in 2008. His support among them has now plummeted to 29 percent, the lowest on record. Even Walter Mondale got 31 percent of their votes when he lost to Reagan in 1984, and that was the previous record low. Analysts say this could mean we’re seeing a return of the voting bloc that created the Reagan landslides: so-called “Reagan Democrats.” Working class whites who identify as Democrats, but vote for Republicans. Ironically, it was Reagan himself who best summed up the reason why this is happening today. He said that he was once a Democrat, and he didn’t leave the party. It just moved so far left, it left him.